The Head of Lake Nemi

Richard Wilson (1713/14–1782) (?)

Ca 1780. Oil on wood

Richard Wilson was one of the most highly appreciated 18th-century landscape painters in Britain, and one of the pioneers of this genre in British art. His Italian landscapes were extremely popular in the 1750s and 1760s. These poetic landscapes depicting real-life views were elaborated with references to classical culture, which struck the viewers as something quite novel. Wilson was a founding member of the Artists’ Union (1768) and the Royal Academy of Arts; he successfully participated in exhibitions of both institutions. For reasons unknown, towards the end of his life Wilson’s reputation underwent rapid decline, from which it recovered slowly only after his death.

The last years of his life Wilson spent in poverty, and painting became his means to earn his daily bread. He used various cheap materials, and even reused materials, as painting supports. The small painting in the Mikkel Museum depicts Lake Nemi not far from Rome. The composition was made by Wilson during the peak of his creative career, and he repeated the motif later on several occasions. The Mikkel Museum’s version shows excellent brushwork, but was executed hastily and on a wooden panel taken from a piece of furniture.